The five-year plan

Friday, 21 June 2013

Summer plans, autumn plans

I hope I don’t bore you too much with
these planning post, but I find them a good help for myself to structure my
sewing. I am terribly behind on my wardrobe project, mainly because I was ill
for most of last year and just didn’t have the energy to sew. I’m trying to not
mind that, but instead work myself though my accumulated pile. And I am very
pleased that I have managed to finish four wardrobe items during May. Now I’m trying
to finish the raincoat I have been talking about since last summer.

The five years of my wardrobe project
don’t demand the same amount of clothes to be purchased/sewn ever season. The
two first years are quite heavy, while the upcoming third year has considerable
fewer garments. Also, this isn’t a contest. I’m making these clothes for me,
after all.

My summer wardrobe probably has the biggest
holes yet, with quite a few clothes that I haven’t even started. There is the
raincoat which is almost done as well as a dotted dress with very little left
as well.

Brown silk noil dress consisting of
jacket, blouse and skirt I have cut out the blouse and I have a true and tried
skirt pattern, so I will try to finish those this summer. The jacket, however,
may have to wait until next year.

I'm actually making the blouse after the dress pattern, though I have straightened the hem. And I plan to make this particular jacket as well.

Green silk noil blouse I have a fairly
simple blouse pattern lined up, so I think I can probably do this one quite
quickly.

Artificial silk dress patterned with flowers
I have it all cut out, but will probably put this one on hold for now.

As soon as I saw this pattern I knew that I wanted to make this dress. It wasn't until I came home and compared that I realized that it has exactly the same colours!

Sand coloured coat I recently found a
lovely corduroy that will make a great summer’s coat and I feel quite exited
about it. And I have wanted to make the Claremont coat from Decades of Style for a while. However, I will keep myself in check until the brown skirt and blouse
is finished.

I don’t think this is too much, but
summer is also in full swing and it is time to look ahead to autumn a bit. Here
is what I ought to have finished, but haven’t:

A grey wool shirtwaist dress I have the
fabric for it, but I don’t feel much exited about it, so if necessary I will
put this one on hold.

Fur coat I really want to make my faux
fur coat now! I have the fabric and I have the pattern. Furthermore, the
pattern is quite easy, so I hope to start this one by the end of August.

Brown sport suit This should have been
made in matching brown gabardine, but will, in reality, be a gabardine skirt
(already finished) a pair of brown trousers from Heyday and a dark brown jacket.
So, just the jacket left. I am fiddling with the fitting right now.

Grey flannel suit After much humming and
hemming I have finally decided to buy this one. I have been ogling this one
from Puttin’ On the Ritz since forever, and I plan to order it as soon as I
measured myself. It will be in treed and not flannel, but I can live with that.

Strictly speaking this is a late 30's suit, but I like it.

That takes care of year 1 and two. By the
way, you do know that you can see the wardrobe list for each and every year on
top of the blog? As I finish I update the posts with photos and links to the
relevant blog posts, so you get a nice overview over the wardrobe. For obvious
reason, Year one and two are the most filled in.

But, as I said, year three is starting
now, and this is what my list says I am to get:

Blue wool dress.I know which pattern I
want, but I haven’t found the right fabric. I have quite a few dresses, so this
one isn’t any priority.

Grey wool blouse. Here is a dilemma as
my book says that I am to make this out of the grey shirtwaist dress. You know
the one I haven’t started yet. I do need a few separates, though, so I want to
make it. I plan to find some suitable grey wool fabric and make a blouse out of
another fabric.

Black wool skirt Again a garment made
out of a previous one, namely the black wool dress. I have actually made that
one, but have hardly ever worn it (and not taken any photos) so I don’t feel
prepared to cut into it to make a skirt. But I have other black wool fabrics
and a skirt isn’t hard to make.

A black coat I have been mulling over
this one, but only just recently it struck me that I have my grandmother Greta’s
winter coat from 1939. It is in great shape and it actually fits me, so this
one if already finished! Yay me! Or rather, yay grandmother!

So you see that the third year
autumn/winter list is quite short. I plan to focus on the fur coat and brown
jacket and then the skirt and blouse.

2 comments:

Yeah, making a couple of dresses just to cut them up into separates seems like rather a waste, doesn't it? I assume the writer figured that they'd be worn by year 3, or at least feel a bit outdated, but it really sounds odd to me even assuming that you had followed the script, so to speak, and didn't have much of a previous wardrobe. I can't think of many garments I'd be ready to scrap like that after only a couple of years, unless they were a bit unsuccessful to begin with.

A few words about me

Who am I? Happily growing older and trying to have as much fun in the meantime. Lives in the vicinity of Stockholm, mainly ruled by five cats. Sewing makes me happy, so I try to do it every day.
Writes about the 18th century and various other sewing projects in Isis’ Wardrobe and about creating a 1940’s wardrobe in Fashionably Forties.